smidey

i immediately contacted my power supplier & told them what i thought of their meter readers actions, my reply was "I am terrible solly about your missing sheeps, i will pass this onto my manager & day will contact you with in five wurkin dayzs." the above spelling is how i intended it

i'm pretty sure he wants to remove algae off the silicone not remove the silicone.

wow, there is alot of really technical info on the net about it but here is some info thAt can help us understand, i take form this info below that the lack of heat transfer the better it insulates but i am not totally sure that "Koolfoam" is the standard polystyrene. FROM KOOLFOAM WEBSITE The polystyrene walls occupy only about 2% of the total volume: the rest is air which is trapped in the cells and cannot pass from one cell to another. Still air is an extremely poor conductor, so that little heat can move from one cell to another and the alternative paths along the thin polystyrene cell walls are equally unsuitable for rapid heat transfer. The thermal conductivity of cellular materials made from Koolfoam varies with density, and with temperature. Within the normal density range of material used in building the variation of conductivity with density is comparatively small. At 10°C the thermal conductivity of expanded Koolfoam of density 20kg/m is 31-36 mW/m.k. However, in carrying out insulation calculations for heated buildings it is usual to use the same nominal value for all densities and temperatures, eg the value of 30 mW.m.K.

i know that it will have an insulating factor, its just how much or how effectively it insulates. polstyrene must have a percentage of air in it so the temp of the tank will heat that air increasing the polys temp with it. where the tanks are it is almost the same temp as outside & the poly was definately warmer than the room.

yeah its a $160 Panasonic Lumix camera we bought, i used to have a Sony H1 ($1000 worth) which was technically 100 times better, lasted 3 years before it no longer worked & was really hard to use. I explained all this to the salesman at Harvey Norman & he thought the H1 was the best of its type & thought we should have been happy about it only lasting that long as that was normal ($333 per year of use). Cheap easy to use cameras are a better option IMO.

nah, its warm from the tank not my hand.

my gate is 3 metres long, goes accros my driveway & you have to lift it to stop it dragging on the ground so unfortunately not an option.

so they are approx 15cm & slightly larger than mine?

the meter reader came to our house yesterday (we have 3.5 acres with 5 sheep on it) to read the meter, quickly came & went as they do. my wife had a feeling that he wouldn't shut the gate so sent my son down to check (we can't see our front gate from the house) & sure enough he had driven off without shutting it. If we had not checked, the chances are the sheep would've gone missing or wandered down the road which could also be a messy situation for the stock. We also keep the gate shut in case our youngest daughter (almost 2 yr) does the "mum's not looking so i'm outa here!" trick which she has been known to do in the past. The potential outcome from leaving our gate open could range from the loss of $750 worth of sheep or a small child being run over by a milk tanker. I'm sure it was an honest mistake but that's how headlines are made.

i use a dish scrubber to clean algae off glass & silicone.

Yesterday i went into Payless plastics to get a poly box & i saw polystyrene sheets there so i bought a 1200x1200x12.5mm sheet which was only $9. I cut it up & lined the back & sides of my two grow out tanks that are in my very cold garage. I had noticed since it got cold that the heaters were on every time i went into the garage so to help keep the warmth in poly lining them would be a great idea. This morning when i went to feed the fish I touched the poly & it was kinda warm which makes me think it is not thick enough to insulate the tank well. Anyone know more about the thickness required for optimal insulation or how well the 12.5mm will work?

those are pretty large clowns, are the larger ones roughly 25cm? i have two that are only about 5 inches & two that are about 1 1/4 inch.

they should match

i read this post then noticed your user name, they don't match

in the words of kenny "well, i didn't loose them. I know where they are." :lol:

you could double box them, they stack inside each other don't they?

there were a few hints about the potential of some breeding on this forum a month or two ago but i haven't seen the "Here are my aquarium breded clowns" thread. I don't know exact figures & i'm sure someone may know but i think it either has never happened or maybe a couple of times in the world. rarer than the proverbial rocking horse droppings :lol:

you can just see it on LH end of container, looks like a jebo heater.

free, we did some renovating & they didn't charge us for them but normally they are $4 each i think.

that's cool

you sure or just assuming? buy a smaller cheaper one & try it if you can't get a guard, might be worth it in the end.

i painted mine when we moved & refilled it when the paint was still wet, added the fish straight after. No problem in doing that as long as the water & paint stay separate. I used a brush to apply two test pots of resene black. the test pots were the perfect size for my tank to give a good thick coat.

excuse the pun :lol: taking this thought a step further, if the heater guard is plastic do you need one to protect plastic?

nice, they have spots which i don't recall seeing before. they look big in the pics, what size are they?